Interview

Interview

Those who know that Steve Buscemi’s new film, Interview is a remake of a 2003 film of the same name by Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was brutally murdered in 2004 by a militant Islamist for his outspoken condemnation of Muslim treatment of women, may be surprised by how commonplace the film is. A psychological pas de deux between a reporter and a starlet, Interview, transplanted to a cavernous downtown Manhattan loft, resembles nothing so much as a proficient, glib off-Broadway piece, purporting to examine preconceived notions about celebrity and journalism but more often interested in actorly histrionics.

But while Van Gogh’s legacy as a controversial, anti-establishment, anticlerical thinker could be better benefited than from this puff piece in disguise, Interview does provide director/leading man Buscemi and Sienna Miller with a dirty little playground on which to cavort and chew scenery.